Growing Romanesco in your own garden: We present suitable varieties and give tips and tricks from sowing, care and fertilization to harvesting.
The Romanesco cabbage (Brassica oleracea convar. botrytis var. botrytis) is also known as minaret or turret cabbage. This particularly beautiful type of cabbage gets its name from the shape of its inflorescences, which grow like towers or minarets. It is often said that this type of cabbage is a combination of cauliflower and broccoli. But the fact is that Romanesco is a pure type of cauliflower.
The Romanesco cabbage has a very intense aroma compared to most other types of cabbage, especially compared to the more common cauliflower. The vitamin content is also a lot higher than in the more well-known cauliflower. The buds of both cauliflower and romanesco are eaten. In the case of the latter, these develop later in comparison to other conspecifics and are therefore somewhat smaller.
Variety of Romanesco
You can buy seeds for growing Romanesco in your own garden on the internet. Ready-made plants are also available in selected garden shops. Choose the right variety. We have put together some flavor recommendations for you:
- Year-round varieties:
- Celio F1: tall growing variety, year-round cultivation possible with good yields.
- Varities for late summer and autumn cultivation:
- Veronica F1: uniform beautiful buds, high resistance to powdery mildew.
- White Gold: high-quality, high-yielding Romanesco buds.
- Navona F1: particularly beautiful and heavy buds.
- Gitano F1: compact variety with high yield and great resistance to downy mildew.
Grow Romanesco - this is how it works step by step: We will take you through the gardening year with short instructions
- You can start sowing at the end of February. A wind-protected cold frame (fleece cover for frosty nights) or a sunny windowsill is suitable. Direct sowing is only advisable from April. A temperature of around 12 °C is recommended for good germination. The first successes will be noticeable after just one week. When germinating on the window sill, prick out the young plants after about 3 weeks and transfer them to suitable pots (P9). Here they have enough space to grow well.
- In April the bed has to be prepared for planting out. This is very important, because the Romanesco not only needs a sunny spot, but also nutrient-rich soil. Fresh compost or a primarily organic organic fertilizer such as our Plantura organic tomato fertilizer with a long-term effect can improve the soil conditions significantly.
- In the course of April, the cabbage cuttings are planted in the garden. The Romanesco needs an area of about 50×50 cm per plant (smaller varieties are also satisfied with less).
- During growth, you can additionally supply the plants with a nitrogenous fertilizer every 2 weeks. However, you should stop four weeks before harvest, otherwise the flavor will be lost!
- During dry summer days, the pretty Romanesco needs more water. Regular weeding and loosening of the surrounding soil will reward the Romanesco with a higher yield and even more aroma.
- Depending on the variety, you must check the inflorescences at least every other day during harvest time. Before the cabbages start to loosen up, it's time to harvest. Typically, most Romanesco strains are harvested before the outer covering leaves fully reveal the green and so delicious bud cluster. For harvest, the Romanesco cabbage is cut off and the remaining parts of the plant can be disposed of on the compost heap.
The variety of cabbage varieties is great - we present the most important cabbage types and varieties in our overview.